My expertise: personal finance, career transition, and retirement. My latest book is Love Your Job: The New Rules of Career Happiness. Other recent books include: What's Next? Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties and Beyond and Great Jobs for Everyone 50 +. I am a columnist for The New York Times. I am AARP's JOB EXPERT. I write a weekly column for boomer women on the new PBS web site, NextAvenue.org. My journalistic journey has taken me from Forbes to Money to Kiplinger's Personal Finance to U.S. News and World Report, where I developed the "Second Acts" column back in 2006, and then on to USA Today where I wrote the “Your Money” column. I run my own media company with the following platforms: I write non-fiction career and personal finance books and online columns like this one. I give speeches on changing careers, finding work after 50, working in retirement, ways to learn to love your job and women and money. I consult on a variety of career topics. I grew up in Fox Chapel, outside of Pittsburgh, Pa. I'm a graduate of Duke University. To learn more about me, go to http://www.kerryhannon.com/. If you have story ideas or tips, e-mail me at kerry@kerryhannon.com. Follow me on Twitter: @KerryHannon

Why Older Workers Can't Be Ignored

The day is coming when employers are going to embrace the value of older workers.

They don’t have a choice. There are, however, some sober challenges which I discuss below.

The growing presence of older Americans in the workforce is a fact. Our economy is already relying increasingly on 50-plusers working–even if we don’t always feel the love from our employers.

The percentage of people 65 and older in the labor force increased from 12.1 percent in 1990 to 16.1 percent in 2010. The increase was greater for women, according to new analysis of Census data.

The Census also projects a 67% increase in the 65-and-older population between 2015 and 2040, when one in five Americans will be 65 or older,

The Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College says that by 2019, workers 55 and older will comprise 25 percent of the workforce.

The Urban Institute predicts workers 50 years and older will account for 35 percent of the labor force by 2019.

As I write in my new book, Great Jobs for Everyone 50+, retirement at 65 is passé. People want to keep working for two very core reasons–the mental engagement and for the income. We’re living longer healthier lives, and no one wants to outlive their money. And thankfully, we have souped-up replacement joints and memory-jogging drugs to make it even easier.

Living longer means working longer

This is great news for the economy. Really.

Older workers with earnings boost payments into Social Security, and they spend on all kinds of things from meals out to clothing to vacations which keeps the economic engine purring.

From an employer’s perspective, older workers contribute experience and are often willing to work part-time. And you know what that means–employers are generally spared from shelling out for pesky benefits like medical insurance.

On the surface, employers get it. At least they’re giving lip service to the realization that something new is afoot. A joint poll by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and AARP shows that more than seven in 1o human resource professionals polled say the loss of talented older workers is “a problem” or “a potential problem” for their organizations.

They plan to hire retired employees as consultants or temporary workers, offer flexible work arrangements and design part-time positions to attract older workers.

Corporate executives and policy makers would be wise to focus on how they can keep older workers productively on the job longer.

Here’s why. As the economy gains momentum, plenty of jobs will be created between now and 2030, and there will not be enough younger workers to fill the need as millions of boomers leave the workforce.

Unmapped demographic terrain.

This may sound ridiculous at a time when U.S. unemployment floats around 8%. Workplace experts, however, predict that there will be a future shortage of trained workers for key jobs in a broad swath of professions from education to engineering to healthcare and beyond. Older workers will need not only to stay on the job, but have core training to stay relevant.

Here are the challenges:

1. Who is going to pay for that training? Most labor market experts I have interviewed say the government and private employers need to ramp up more training programs for older workers and create workplaces that make it easier for them to do their jobs.

Employers don’t want to spend for it. They’ve already cut to the bone to stay competitive globally in recent years and this kind of spending is a tough sell.

Conceivably, as I discussed as a panel member at a recent Federal Reserve Workforce Development conference, one way to provide the needed training is through the community college system. The coursework could be offered at an affordable cost for the worker. Depending on who foots the bill, employers or employeees could receive tax incentives to ease the tuition bill. (Please continue to next page.)

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Thanks for this great overview, Kerry. In the 70s, when I was contemplating law school, we could sense the doors to so many professions starting to open wide. I have the same feeling now — boomers will be working for years, starting careers they couldn’t have imagined a few years back. But we’ll have to take a lot of responsibility for being ready — embracing technologies that aren’t easy for us, treating fitness like a job, networking like mad, recruiting younger mentors and letting go of the past, both the successes and the disappointments

Kerry, an excellent article. I am afraid that the employment situation in our current economy often is portrayed as a zero sum game. Articles in esteemed publications such as the New York Times, hint that baby boomers’ delays in leaving the job market may impact job prospects for new entries into the market.

The mindset should focus on creating opportunities, not taking them away. Baby boomers are in better shape now than before. They learned to job and not to smoke at an ideal age. There are new books (and you can find a good study on Nielsen) observing that boomers are an untapped market. Relegating boomers to early retirement, in my view, may shrink the economy and put an incredible burden on younger workers to fund government social programs.

In a comment to your post, Beverly Jones raised a good point that boomers must take the responsibility for being relevant. This requires acquiring new skills and combining them with the career capital they built over the years and, yes, fitness should be treated as a job. Employers should feel comfortable in diversity — seeking input from young and old, women and men and people of different backgrounds, to build a vibrant and relevant business. Boomers should not be stuck in their ways, and they should not being perceived as being stuck in their ways.

Finally, boomers could explore their own opportunities. Once new regulations are released for equity crowdfunding under the US JOBS Act, boomers may find a new source to raise capital from their communities for new projects.

Thanks for your kind words. You’re spot on about boomers being an untapped market! And your sage observation that regulating boomers to early retirement may create more of a future burden than people realize is one I hope many people read and take to heart. All best, Kerry

Strange , Its only starting at 50 that most people hit their stride. Its the total experience, not just wisdom. If anything most “older workers” suffer from insecurity, discounting what they bring to the table, not valuing it. Not all of us will be entrepreneurs,(at any age), but we have the focus and the vision (if we choose to use it) to make some concrete meaningful changes. When you’re younger you tend to chase shinny objects. With time you learn to better place your energies which is my whole point.

Thank you for this article. Good info for strategic workforce planners who are addressing these demographic changes and skill needs now; see “Take This Job and Share It” http://bit.ly/igUkQv to rev up the engines on the economy!

Meanwhile interesting to predict what percentage of the growing contract labor force will be made up of boomers, who if they keep up with technology, who may be able to call their own shots.

As companies are cautious to hire full time positions in challenged economy, it’s predicted that more talent, regardless of generation, will be contract “untethered workers” (new term in current issue of HBR “Third Wave of Virtual Work”). Can we imagine companies running primarily on contract talent who despite being “untethered” hold the reins on delivering value? And how transparent will companies be about this?

upto I looked at the check four $9610, I didn’t believe …that…my friend woz like truley receiving money parttime on their apple labtop.. there mums best friend had bean doing this less than 13 months and just repayed the dept on their house and bought Ford Mustang. I went here, FB26.ℂom